Day-care van driver arrested in death of 2-year-old left inside

Chanese Sneed, the mother of Noah Sneed, hugs Noah’s father Tony Bell during a gathering to honor the toddler's life with a candlelight memorial in front of the Ceressa’s Daycare & Preschool center on July 30. At right, a photo of Noah Sneed. (Michael Laughlin / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

A day-care van driver has been arrested in connection to the death of a toddler who was left inside the van for hours on a scorching July day, the Broward Sheriff’s Office announced Friday.

After an autopsy, the medical examiner concluded that 2-year-old Noah Sneed died “from hyperthermia as a result of being left inside the van unsupervised for an extended period of time,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

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Engrid Thurston, 46, was arrested at her Lauderhill home this morning. She was booked into the Main Jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale on an aggravated manslaughter charge, said Keyla Concepcion, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

In the first 10 minutes on a day as hot as July 29 was, the temperature inside a locked vehicle could leap as much as 20 degrees. It would rise another 10 degrees in the next 10 minutes and about five degrees for every 10 minutes thereafter, said Janette Fennell, president and founder of Kids and Cars, a nonprofit that tracks hot-car deaths.

After an hour, the temperature inside a locked vehicle could be as much as 40 to 50 degrees hotter than it is outside, she said.

At a candlelight vigil after Noah’s death, his father — Tony Antwon Bell, 33, of Fort Lauderdale — was beyond distraught by the news.

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“I don’t feel sane right now.” Tony Bell said, clutching a framed photo of his son who he liked to call Big Boy. “I lost my son.”

“I’m a little mad,” he said. “I’m more sad though.”

At Noah’s funeral a few days later, he was eulogized as a loving little boy who liked to flick light switches, swipe sweets from tables and give hugs freely with his tongue sticking out of his grinning mouth.